My 23 month old 8800GTX failed last Tuesday so I ordered a 9800GX2 that I had been looking at for quite some time; and in less than 18 hours it was delivered to my door (from Newegg or course). yay! (And yes the 8800GTX will be replaced in a couple of weeks by BFG np. yay!)

But even after getting the 9800GX2 for the dirt cheap price of $279; I wasn't the least bit satisfied. And the reason why is that my two year old 8800GTX had just simply done an all around, unbelievable job performance wise, especially with games at 16X AA. Whereby the new 9800GX2 is only awesome when AA turned off, but has dreadfully slow FPS with as little as 2X AA.

Question(s) plz ty:

1. Should I get a GTX280 instead?

(RMAing the 9800GX2 already; GTX280 will be here Tuesday. Sry I just had to do it. )

2. Has anyone else been in my boat before? (8800GTX to 9800GX2 to GTX280?)

3. And that leaves the possibility of the Trade-Up program (BFG).

4. What should I hope for when it comes to the next 100 days and trading up my GTX280?

I cant bare to switch to AMDATI. I started gaming four years and have had:
5900, 6200, 6600 (AGP), 6600, 7800GT, 7950GT, 8800GTX, 9800GX2, and now the GTX280. w00t! (Tuesday)

ty

ATI has made a huge comeback since the 2900 series, you really cannot go wrong with either one now. If I were you I would go with either a 260 and overclock it to 280 speeds which most will easily do or go with a 1gb HD4870. 280's are nice cards but imo they are still to expensive considering how easy it is to get a 260 to perform on par with one with an overclock and save yourself close to $180 at the same time.

But if you must absolutely have the best single GPU and money is not an issue then by all means get the 280 and overclock it. Or as Xion said the HD 4870X2 is where it is at for dual gpu solutions and the card will rock your socks off.

ATI has made a huge comeback since the 2900 series, you really cannot go wrong with either one now. If I were you I would go with either a 260 and overclock it to 280 speeds which most will easily do or go with a 1gb HD4870. 280's are nice cards but imo they are still to expensive considering how easy it is to get a 260 to perform on par with one with an overclock and save yourself close to $180 at the same time.
But if you must absolutely have the best single GPU and money is not an issue then by all means get the 280 and overclock it. Or as Xion said the HD 4870X2 is where it is at for dual gpu solutions and the card will rock your socks off.

Indeed!
And wow!
I totally agree. It hasn't been since the 6200 days that I've contemplated trying to get the performance of a more expensive card out of the less expensive version. I wonder how close to performance of a GTX280 some ppl have gotten with a GTX260. The savings could easily be $150 to $200 for right now! And that could get you a AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ CPU and a GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H MOBO! If you include the GTX260 the grand total without RAM, $400?

I've already, "(RMAing the 9800GX2 already; GTX280 will be here Tuesday. Sry I just had to do it.)" Because I was so dissatisfied with the 9800GTX.

But yes Meddilion, the GTX260 is definitely the way to go for countless scenarios. In addition to upgrading for example, a brand new system with a budget of under $600. And you have the trade up programs to consider too. Meaning that you could easily end up with a GTX280 for very little if its price dropped just right and in a timely manner.

What I want is a miracle and to trade up from a GTX280 to a GTX380 AS IF it was going to be released in less than 100 days. But then I also want to also get a kit to print actual certified money.

I wonder how close to performance of a GTX280 some ppl have gotten with a GTX260.

I have seen some benchmarks that show it to be just as fast and in some cases even faster with a nice overclock of around 670-700mhz on the core and around 1400mhz on the shaders.

My 260 for example is rock stable at 760core 1534shader and 2600mem, that is enough to constantly out do a stock 280. Keep in mind you can also overclock the 280 but it has been shown that they dont overclock as well as the 260's on average.

I have seen some benchmarks that show it to be just as fast and in some cases even faster with a nice overclock of around 670-700mhz on the core and around 1400mhz on the shaders.

My 260 for example is rock stable at 760core 1534shader and 2600mem, that is enough to constantly out do a stock 280. Keep in mind you can also overclock the 280 but it has been shown that they dont overclock as well as the 260's on average.

I hope you enjoy your 280, its a heck of a good card.

Cool.

So what is the dif Meddilion?

Is a 260 merely a slow 280 or is there a bigger difference than just their clock(s) speed?

Go with the GTX 280 ,the 9800GX2 my be faster in some games ,but the GTX 280 have more vram and you get better min FPS with a GTX 280 and the GTX 280 just looks better,I ran two 9800GTX in SLI for over a month and when I put my BFG GTX 280 OCX back in ,it just ran better,and looked better.